


Blue Juggler

by BuruRaven



Series: Blue Antonym [2]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Again, Amnesia, Canon Compliant Up To Chapter 71, Fluff, Gen, If You Squint? Yeah Maybe, No Slash, Yukio Tests His Powers And Accidently Hurts Rin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 15:36:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5054278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuruRaven/pseuds/BuruRaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The object at his feet was the fire extinguisher that had rolled out of Rin’s grasp when said teen fell to his knees a couple meters from Yukio. Right now, Rin was just kneeling there, blank expression on a very pale face, arms dangling uselessly by his sides, unseeing eyes wide open and blueish-cold lips forming a little “o”.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>For a moment, Yukio was so shocked he just stood there. Then he noticed Rin wasn’t actually moving, as in… Rin wasn’t even breathing. Alarmed, Yukio swiftly covered the distance to his brother and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him slightly.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>“Nii-san! Hey, Nii-san!”</i>
</p><p>I actually never considered doing a series about this. When I wrote Blue Pyjamas, I wrote it as a one shot. But then, Adsullatta made me wonder about that possibility and this is the result. You can also find this fic on my tumblr, <a href="http://bururaven.tumblr.com/post/131709340364/blue-juggler">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Juggler

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Adsullatta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adsullatta/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don’t own Ao no Exorcist/Blue Exorcist. Ao no Exorcist/Blue Exorcist is the property of Kazue Katō, and is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this, nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

The sound of pencil scratching on paper, the crackling of a page being turned.

Rin dropped his hand on the desk and sighed softly, staring ahead out of the window of his and Yukio’s dorm room. The days were getting colder and gloomier, bringing with them dead leaves, chilly wind and annoying rain. Rin didn’t precisely dislike any of those. In fact, they were a relief from the suffocating heat of summer and Rin welcomed them gratefully. But, that day, it was sunny and nice outside and they were stuck inside, studying. By Yukio’s decree. On a Sunday.

He turned slightly to look at  ~~his jailer~~  Yukio sitting on his own desk, much like Rin himself. Except his little brother didn’t look up from his work and kept on writing, undisturbed. Rin supported his cheek on the palm of his left hand, listening to the dull sound of Yukio working.

*scratch-scratch* *scratch-scratch-scratch*

Rin sighed quietly. He was so bored…

“Nii-san, don’t space out or you won’t finish that today.”, Yukio told him in a monotonous intonation, without taking his eyes off his work.

Rin sat up straighter in his chair at that, but couldn’t really contain the big yawn that followed. Yukio’s less expansive yawn followed shortly. Rin snickered.

 _Those annoyingly contagious things…_  Yukio thought, regretfully.

Teal eyes met blue ones with a stern expression that did nothing to wipe Rin’s playful little smile off his face. But the solemnness didn’t last long and, in the end, they both half grinned at each other for a second. Then, Yukio sobered into his default sensei demeanour.

“I know it’s hard for you, Nii-san, but you have to focus. Meister’s exam is next month and the Order’s-…”

“I know that!”, Rin interrupted, peeved. “You don’t need to keep reminding me of it. Geez…!”

“Then, please go back to work and start showing some progress.”, Yukio said with finality and returned his attention to his own work.

“What do you mean by that?? I have already shown some progress!”, Rin countered.

Yukio released an exasperated sigh and turned once again to look at Rin.

“Nii-san, your grades-…”

Rin cut into his twin’s words by abruptly raising from his chair with a suddenly beaming, but determined expression.

“I’ll show you!”, he exclaimed excitedly.

“Nii-san…”, Yukio grumbled tiredly.

He watched impotently as Rin fished three little objects from the top drawer of his nightstand. He came over to Yukio’s side of the room and showed him the three colourful juggling balls. They were common cloth covered beanbags, nothing particularly remarkable about them.

Yukio stared speechless up at his brother. There was a completely silly proud expression on Rin’s smiling face. Not for the only instant in the duration of that conversation, Yukio re-evaluated his own account over his twin’s cognitive health.

“See, they’re three different colours. There’s a green ball, a yellow ball and a red ball.”, Rin declared happily.

Still not knowing how to react to the current situation, Yukio held a perfectly neutral countenance and simply stared at his twin.

“… Okay, then!”, Rin exclaimed happily, apparently undeterred by Yukio’s lack of reaction. He walked back to his side of the room and stood near the bed. Then, he started juggling the three little balls from hand to hand until he reached a steady rhythm. He was actually quite dextrous at it.

“Now, choose a colour.”, he prompted.

Yukio had seen enough. He dropped his neutral countenance and let exasperation replace it.

“Nii-san, stop playing around and-…”

“Pick a colour, Yukio!”, Rin instructed sternly, all silliness gone from his voice.

Yukio let out another exasperated sigh and crossed his arms over his chest, but reluctantly complied.

“Yellow.”

Rin nodded and frowned slightly. The airborne yellow ball burst into blue flames midway in its juggling with the other two balls, which remained remarkably flame-free. Rin stopped his juggling carelessly to beam smugly at Yukio.

“What do you say, four-eyes? Progress!!”

Yukio blinked.

“A small and relatively fast-moving target. Indeed. That is progress.”, he conceded thoughtfully. “Can you do that to a bullet?”

Rin hesitated, looking unsure.

“I don’t know… a bullet… that is a  _very_  fast-moving target… and I just succeeded in this the other day. But maybe that’s what Shura has in mind. That would be cool!”

Yukio nodded thoughtfully.

“Yeah, that would be very useful.”, he agreed. “But maybe you should put that out before it burns your bed.”, he finished, pointing with his chin in the general direction of Rin’s feet.

“Huh?”, Rin eloquently inquired, following Yukio’s gaze.

The combusting ball hadn’t been completely consumed by the flames, and so, its still flaming remnants had led the carpet to catch on fire as well, the blue flames now spreading by Rin’s feet.

“Shit! I’ll get the fire extinguisher!”, the older twin declared urgently, speeding out of the room.

Yukio examined the flames for a fraction of a second until a thoughtful expression suddenly creased his brow. He swiftly raised from his chair and walked in the direction of the little but ominous-coloured fire. He extended his right arm, hand outstretched above the flames…

And hesitated.

For some reason, Rin had never mentioned the events of [that night](http://bururaven.tumblr.com/post/129978351519/blue-pyjamas), about a week ago. Maybe he thought he had dreamed it. Maybe he was so nearly asleep then, that he couldn’t really remember it. Maybe both. Either way, Yukio was grateful that he had to give his brother no explanation and that he could keep his secret for a little while longer. 

But Yukio would still like to test his powers further, understand them better. And this was the perfect chance. Also, he would surely not harm Rin in any way this time.

Yukio reached for the energy in his chest and closed his outstretched hand into a fist over the flames. The power turned his vision blue, but…

Nothing happened.

Yukio frowned, confused. Focusing on the idea of actually grabbing the flames’ energy this time, he tried again. This time, the flames immediately lost size, in a way similar to how milk in a glass shrinks when you pull it through a straw. At the same time, Yukio heard a soft gasp behind him, a thumping sound and the feeling of an object hitting the back of his heels.

The younger twin turned on himself fast, trying to fake innocence. But what he saw was nothing he could’ve expected.

The object at his feet was the fire extinguisher that had rolled out of Rin’s grasp when said teen fell to his knees a couple meters from Yukio. Right now, Rin was just kneeling there, blank expression on a very pale face, arms dangling uselessly by his sides, unseeing eyes wide open and blueish-cold lips forming a little “o”.

For a moment, Yukio was so shocked he just stood there. Then he noticed Rin wasn’t actually moving, as in… Rin wasn’t even breathing. Alarmed, Yukio swiftly covered the distance to his brother and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him slightly.

“Nii-san! Hey, Nii-san!”

Rin’s torso threatened to crumble all the way down to the floor, so Yukio held him up. He vigorously rubbed the unresponsive teen’s back.

“Hey, Nii-san! Breathe! Take a deep breath, come on!”

And Rin did. He coughed weakly and grabbed at Yukio’s left arm, seemingly coming out of his marble-like catatonic state.

“It’s so cold.”, he garbled rasping and resting his forehead on Yukio’s left shoulder.

Yukio didn’t reply and only kept rubbing Rin’s back in a now slower rhythm. He could feel the touch of Rin’s ice-cold hand on a sliver of exposed skin on his wrist.

The same thing of before had happened. The effect of Yukio’s powers on Satan’s flames was completely different from the effect they had on anything else, object or living, from Gehenna or from Assiah. And, surprisingly, instead of simply acting on the flames, Yukio’s powers seemed to directly affect the source, Rin. And they hurt him. Yukio hurt him. Twice now. And there was no way of escaping an explanation this time. It was the least Yukio could do after this. Rin shivered under his still rubbing hand and leaned further against his shoulder.

“It’s cold.”, he repeated, this time more clearly.

“Yes. Let’s get off the ground, Nii-san.”, Yukio said in a calming tone and helped Rin to his feet. He wasn’t going to force his brother to study after this, so he directed him to his bed.

Rin grabbed the bed covers and crept under them, like he would at the end of the day. He laid his head on the pillow and promptly closed his eyes.

Then, without opening his eyes, Rin asked tiredly “Why is the carpet on fire?”. He yawned. “Som’ne should put tha’ out…” And went to sleep instantaneously.

The shock of hearing these words got Yukio paralyzed, gaping dumbfounded at his brother’s now sleeping form.

 _Rin… didn’t… remember_.

The events of the last fifteen minutes had seemingly been wiped out of his head, along with his demonic energy. Judging by the once again healthy colour of Rin’s cheeks and lips, the energy was already coming back. But, if what had happened one week ago was repeating itself, then the memories would, at least mostly, be gone.

Moving like an automaton, Yukio mechanically grabbed the fire extinguisher from the ground and put out the flames the proper way, the non-demonic way. Rin didn’t even twitch.

These powers… they were dangerous, they were frightening. Could Yukio…  _kill_  Rin with his powers? He silently panicked in place, feeling fear, worry and guilt cursing through him like poison, cold sweat flourishing on his brow, tears threatening to fall from his eyes… But he quickly pulled himself together. He would not use his powers on his brother or on Satan’s - no - on _Rin’s_  flames. He would not do it, unless…

Yukio dry-gulped but nodded to himself, determined.

…unless  _strictly necessary_.

A powerful, frightening trump card that, Yukio hoped, would never have to be played.


End file.
